RPG shootout - Neverwinter Nights vs...

[Lord Blackadder]

I'm going to swing by the software bargain bin today, and was wondering what peoples' opinions of Neverwinter Nights are. How would you rate the gameplay next to Diablo II and Dungeon Siege?

[Abulia]

Well, I wouldn't consider either of those games RPGs, so I'm not sure what comparision you're looking for. They're quite different.

NWN is a great game and with the add-ons has a lot of depth. If you like old school D&D and RPGs, you'll probably really like NWN. The online ability to group and play with others in virtual dungeons is quite cool, too.

Diablo and Dungeon Siege aren't RPGs, so they lack any of the depth or longevity that NWN offers.

[Lord Blackadder]

Hmm, good point. I might go so far to say that the "true" RPGs are deep to the point of tedium for me.

I was under the impression that NWN was more similar to Diablo/Dungeon Siege than, say, Baldur's Gate II (which I didn't like). I'm not really into MMORPGs either. Diablo II and Dungeon Siege were nice because I could play them for short periods of time and still make progress.

They lump a lot of games in the Adventure/RPG category - like the Myst series.

[floyde]

I would go for Neverwinter Nights. Diablo II is lots of fun, but it's also a bit dated (2D is SO 1999 ). Dungeon Siege felt very repetitive to me, but I never finished it, so who knows, maybe it was good...

Neverwinter Nights has a lot more depth to it, and there's plenty of extra modules you can download (both free and non-free). The cool thing about Neverwinter Nights is that if you are more into hack n' slash, it works that way also.

[Abulia]

NWN has a single-player story mode that I guess could *roughly* be considered like Diablo, but not really. It's not as complex as Baulder's Gate, though.

Where NWN really takes off is the ability to create your own virtual models, just like the pen-and-paper D&D, and share with your friends online. You can all meet on your server and play a virtual D&D game or you can log onto any of the online persistent servers and play in pre-made worlds. (The ability to take your character with you is dictated by the server.)

There's also a HUGE online NWN community making mods, modules, and add-ons.

The NWN single-player experience is fun, but short. After that, that's when the real gaming begins when you go online with it.